ACL's Fall 2016 Release Ushers in the "Era of Open Data" for Risk Management, Compliance and Audit

SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Sept. 20, 2016 /CNW/ -- ACL Connections — ACL , a software provider helping governments and the world's biggest public and private companies stamp out fraud, operational waste and unethical business, today announced its Fall 2016 product release, introducing a revolutionary new "Open Data" architecture. Risk management, compliance, audit and related professionals can now look beyond the traditional scope of financial and IT applications data analysis to broadly integrate the most prolific data acquisition, analysis and reporting platforms. The result is a data-centric capability to understand organizational behavior, allowing these professionals to more effectively identify, quantify and predict areas of risk.

"For many years we've led the world's top brands to unmatched discoveries of fraud, waste and abuse through proprietary data analytic capabilities. Now, by using ACL's platform to independently blend and harmonize those same capabilities with those of tools like R, Python, SQL, Hadoop and Tableau, we've created an 'Open Data' environment that is exceptionally powerful while laser-focused on risk management problems," said Dan Zitting, chief product officer at ACL. "A recent survey found the majority of senior risk management professionals doubt their team's ability to strategically impact and influence their organizations.1 By combining big data with a platform that's built to illuminate risk, we're building organizations' confidence in their ability to successfully navigate turbulent environments."

ACL's risk management, compliance and audit platform is differentiated on its ability to use data analytics to drive assessments and decisions. Fall 2016 enhancements, which mark ACL's biggest release ever, target this data-driven capability and include:

Open data Reporting Connector for non-ACL BI and visualization tools, to connect any reporting or visualization tool to ACL for unlimited reporting and visualizations. Now also fully certified for Tableau.

The updated, data-driven engine in the ACL platform makes it easier for teams to access more data, boost analysis with the power of statistical and predictive analytics, and communicate results through unlimited options for data visualization and reporting.

"While many software products allow you to simply crunch data, ACL's analytics and its integrated product suite are uniquely positioned to enable superior analysis of transactional and control activities as an automated program. Whether it be for a comprehensive Continuous Controls Monitoring (CCM) program or for conducting detailed audit program tests as part of the audit plan, the capabilities of ACL with its advanced analysis of patterns to evaluate risk, and its native flexibility is an essential tool for any audit or risk professional. Expanding the data systems we can directly interact with in ACL opens up vast new possibilities in strategic risk management and control evaluation," said Jason A. Gross, vice president of controls management at Siemens Financial Services, Inc. "We're also excited about ACL's new reporting tool integration and Tableau certification, so we can feed our results analyses into any data visualization tool to better understand and communicate risk, controls and performance."

To learn more about ACL's data-driven GRC platform and best practices resources, visit www.acl.com/products.